Esophageal Cancer Awareness Among Patients Attending Out-patient Clinics at Kenyatta National Hospital
Abstract
Report by the National Cancer Institute of Kenya (NCI-K 2023) for 2021 and 2022 indicates
that esophageal cancer is now the leading cause of all cancer deaths in both men and women
accounting for 15.6% of all cancer deaths. Several studies have predicted a 70% increase by
the year 2040 in Eastern Rift Valley corridor with majority being in Low and Middle-Income
Countries (LMIC). Due to vague nature of esophageal cancer clinical presentation coupled
with low level of awareness, poor symptoms appraisal led to delays in seeking healthcare and
consequently prompt diagnosis and treatment. Reports indicate that,70% to 80% of patients
attending KNH are diagnosed at stage III and IV of disease progression with 90%
succumbing to the disease shortly after diagnosis.
The main study objective was to assess the level of awareness of esophageal cancer amongst
patient attending outpatients‟ clinics in KNH, with specific interest focusing on assessing the
level of awareness of early warning signs, risk factors, patient‟s perception of risk factors and
common sources of health promotion information.
This is descriptive cross-sectional study where the study population was sampled from
patients attending out-patient clinics where a sample size of 344 participants was selected.
Data was collected through a structured self-administered questionnaire, coded and entered
into an Excel sheet and transferred to SPSS version 28 for analysis. To demonstrate
association and comparisons between variables, both regression and chi-square was
employed. Descriptive statistics was provided using the mean, percentages, and P-Value to
determine the level of significance. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) a statistical formula was
used to compare social demographic profile of participants to study objective findings and
responses.
Ethical approval was sought at the UoN-KNH Ethical review committee for scientific and
ethical approvals, similarly license was obtained from NACOSTI and permission to collect
data was also sought from heads of department of medicine and surgery in KNH.
The finding of this research demonstrated changing patient social demographics with
improved literacy level and internet access and young respondents, majority being ages of 30
to 40 years. Knowledge gap of warning signs with only difficulty in swallowing at 24.3%
with “very likely response”, smoking and heavy alcohol consumption identified as most
significant risks factors with 50.7% and 42% as “very likely” response, on risk perception
participants who don‟t smoke cigarette or consume alcohol regarded themselves as no risk
population for Esophageal Cancer. Despite increased literacy level and internet access of
participants, 62% of respondents reported to have heard about esophageal cancer, however,
respondents didn‟t demonstrate fundamental knowledge base of esophageal cancer changing
trends and burden as per recently published reports on EC. This finding will be used to
inform and develop a literacy program aiming at promoting awareness of symptom
recognition, symptom appraisal of EC and health-seeking behavior to the general population
and most risk population in developing esophageal cancer for early diagnosis and treatment
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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